Mango-peach sangria – What an awesome summer drink. If you don’t do alcohol, I imagine this would be tasty with Sprite instead of the wine.

Blueberry-chipotle chutney – I first made this sauce years ago, and still think of it as one of the best sauces I’ve ever cooked up. It has a great blend of sweetness and spiciness, and goes wonderfully with grilled summer meats. I haven’t tried it with grilled tofu, but I bet that would be awesome, too.

I know lots of people around here complain about the sweltering summer heat, but for the most part, I kind of like it. I’m a native Texan, so I’m sure that has something to do with it, but beyond the heat summer means iced sweet tea, swimming pools, and Local Boxes filled with stuff like peaches, green beans, and tomatoes. It’s just hard to beat all of that.

Summer squash casserole – I like the idea of this casserole, but will use butter instead of margarine and lower the amount by at least half. You rarely need an entire cup of butter in a non-bakery recipe.

We’re going to start putting the Local Box videos here to accompany the meal plans. Hopefully it’ll help you to have the video in the same place as the meal plan in case you have a question about what an ingredient looks like.

Korean radish salad – Use your green shallots in place of the scallions here. This recipe’s at the bottom of a page full of Spanish black radish recipes, many of which look tasty. I also want to try the remoulade and the radish, carrot, and fennel salad with pecorino cheese.

Ginger beer cocktail – Marrs oranges often have seeds, so use a strainer when you’re squeezing the juice out of them. Leave out the apple if you get turnips this week.

Okra and green beans – This recipe looks tasty, but I’m also intrigued by the “Turn this recipe into a puzzle!” link. It literally turns the recipe into a puzzle – specifically, a word search.

Veggie pizza – Sauteed diced squash, bell peppers, and any other veggies you want until they’re tender. Spread red or white sauce on a pre-made pizza crust, and top with veggies, arugula, (and meat, if you want) and cheese. Bake until the crust is browned and the cheese is bubbly.

Radish top soup – Someone posted this on our Facebook page this week — looks like a tasty way to use the whole radish. The soup base looks pretty neutral, so you can probably throw in whatever herb you end up with from Pure Luck.

Ratatouille – I’m adding some diced smoked sausage to this to up the protein content and make it a meal. Add it with the garlic and onion in the first step so it has time to brown before you add the rest of the ingredients. Chop up your grape tomatoes here instead of the large/diced ones the recipes calls for.

I thought we were getting baby squash blossoms this week, but it turns out we got the blossoms with the squash still attached. No matter – I have a simple preparation that makes these baby veggies taste sweet and lovely.

To make browned butter, you’ll just heat the butter over medium heat until it turns brown and starts to smell deliciously nutty. Toss it with steamed squash and a bit of salt and pepper, and you have an easy side dish made from a summer delicacy. Don’t try to use a butter substitute – it won’t work here.

This treatment will work with almost any veggie. I can see it being especially good with asparagus or carrots.

Baby Squash in Browned Butter

~1/2 lb baby squash with blossoms (the exact weight doesn’t matter – just use all of the ones you received)
4 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut large squash in half lengthwise, but you can leave most of them whole. Steam 8-9 minutes or until fork tender. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat butter over medium heat. In about 5-6 minutes, it will turn brown and start to smell nutty. Turn off heat and carefully add squash – there may be some splattering. Toss squash in butter until coated, and season with salt and pepper.

There are two failproof ways to dress up a food item that you are either not so fond of or are tired of eating. One involves covering the item in question with cheese. The other, invariably, involves sausage.

Now, I like squash. A lot. But we have eaten a lot of it this summer, and so I decided to come up with a fun way to dress it up. I combined sweet turkey Italian sausage with bell peppers, arugula, garlic, and fennel seed, added some jarred pasta sauce, and voila! We had epic stuffed squash. If you have any leftover sauce after stuffing your squash, save it to top spaghetti.

After the squash finished baking, I spotted some Pure Luck parsley and garlic chevre (which you can buy from Greenling) in the fridge and dotted our servings with it. It turned out to be a great final touch — just added a bit of tanginess to the sweet sauce. I’m listing the chevre as an optional ingredient, but I highly recommend it if you have some lying around.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the tops off of the 8-ball squash and scoop out the innards, leaving a thin rind. Halve the yellow squash and do the same. Be sure to get all of the seeds.

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Remove sausage from casing and add to skillet, stirring to crumble. Add peppers, garlic, arugula, and fennel seed. Cook 10-15 minutes, until sausage is browned, veggies are tender, and most of the liquid has evaporated. Add pasta sauce and cook another 5 minutes or so, until heated through.

Using a small spoon, fill squash with sauce. Bake for 25 minutes, until squash is tender. Dot with crumbled chevre, if using.

Prosciutto-wrapped figs – Recipe to come in the handout in your Local Box.

Pesto vegetable tart – To roast peppers, put them under the broiler for about 15 minutes, turning halfway through, until the skins are blackened. Put them in a ziplock bag and let them sit for 10 minutes. When you remove them, the skins will peel right off, and they’ll be easy to de-seed. I’m going to roast all of the peppers and use some here and the rest on sandwiches and salads.

Turkey-cream cheese sandwiches – Spread two slices of hearty bread, like ciabatta, with garden vegetable cream cheese. Top one sliced with turkey, sliced cucumbers, lettuce, sprouts, and some of those peppers you roasted for the above recipe. You could even press it in a panini press or in a cast iron skillet for a warm sandwich.

Basic pinto beans – These have a wonderfully creamy taste and texture, so I want to let their flavor shine by not doing much to them. Simmer about 10 minutes in chicken (or vegetable) broth and season with salt and pepper.